


You're in a Car with a Beautiful Boy

by buoyantsaturn



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan, The Trials of Apollo - Rick Riordan
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-28
Updated: 2020-01-28
Packaged: 2021-02-27 06:21:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 855
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22452595
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/buoyantsaturn/pseuds/buoyantsaturn
Summary: he won't tell you that he loves you, but he loves you.
Relationships: Nico di Angelo/Will Solace
Comments: 12
Kudos: 123





	You're in a Car with a Beautiful Boy

**Author's Note:**

> written for the nico birthday event hosted by solangeloweek on tumblr  
> heavily inspired by "you are jeff" by richard siken, particularly the end

They’re in a car, and Will is driving because Nico never learned how to drive - he never learned how to do much of anything really, aside from hurting those around him either physically or emotionally. Usually both. He knows he’s caused Will more emotional pain than he should have ever felt in a lifetime, and it’s only a matter of time before Nico ends up hurting him physically, no matter how unintentional the act may be. 

Anyway, they’re driving, and Nico doesn’t know to where, or how long it’s been, because he hasn’t bothered to look out the windows since they first started moving. He’s turned sideways in the passenger’s seat, wearing only the bottom half of his seatbelt so that the shoulder strap wouldn’t dig painfully into his neck, and he’s watching Will. 

Will isn’t moving much - eyes flickering across the horizon, head turning only to check his mirrors before changing lanes, his hands firmly on ten-and-two unless he’s making a turn. Nico’s never seen him sat so still, so silent. No tapping fingers or toes, no humming along with the radio or bobbing his head to the beat of the music. And he hasn’t spoken in hours. It’s so unlike him that something inside Nico _aches,_ because he _knows_ this is his fault, even if he isn’t sure _how._

He feels like this is some sort of ending, before things ever really began. The physical distance between them at this moment was hardly more than a foot, yet emotionally Nico felt like Will had left Nico behind across state lines and drove off without him. And Nico doesn't know how to fix it.

“Will,” he whispers, not intending to whisper at all, not even fully intending to _speak,_ but he’s already started - not that Will had even twitched in acknowledgement. “I love you.” He says it because he means it, and because he's meant to say it every day for the last year at least, but he's never been able to get the words out before. He almost wishes he could have held them in longer.

Will’s breathing catches in his throat, barely audible but enough for Nico to hear it. That was his only reaction - not even the widening of his eyes or a tightening of his hands on the steering wheel. Just a momentary disruption to his breathing pattern. 

He flicks the blinker and pulls onto an exit ramp. 

Nico’s breath catches, too, but he doesn't exhale. He knew that if he let that breath out that it would morph into a sob, and he would rather open up the door he’s leaning against and tumble out onto the road than allow Will to see him cry in this moment. He desperately wants to shadow travel away, anywhere else but preferably someplace where Will would never find him, but he isn’t confident that he wouldn’t completely dissolve into the shadows. So he holds his breath to keep back the sobs, and stares up at the roof to keep the tears from spilling over onto his cheeks.

Will drives them toward a rest stop, and parks the car in the furthest spot from everyone else in the lot. He shuts off the engine and unbuckles his seatbelt, and Nico thinks he’s just going to open the door and leave - strand Nico there in the woods somewhere and hitchhike home - but Will turns to face him instead. He doesn’t look up to meet Nico’s eyes, but he reaches out for the hands that are balled into fists in his lap. He takes them in his own, loosens their holds on themselves, and strokes his thumbs soothingly across the backs of Nico’s hands. 

“Nico,” he says, softly, like music, and something inside Nico constricts because it sounds like an ending, but then Will says, “I love you so much more than you could ever know.”

And Nico lets out his breath, his sob, and the tears roll freely down his cheeks as he cries out, “Why didn’t you ever say anything?”

Will drops Nico’s hands, and Nico’s heart starts to race in panic, but Will simply undoes Nico’s seatbelt and untangles him from it so that he can wrap his arms around him and hold him close despite the hard barrier of the center console between them. Will presses a kiss to the side of Nico’s head as he allows the other to cry into his shoulder. “I was waiting for you,” he says. 

“How long have you waited?” Nico asks, but Will doesn’t answer, and Nico knows it anyway. It sticks in his chest and makes it difficult for his next breath to come. Just a little more pain that Nico has caused him emotionally, and if Will had felt the same as Nico does now, then he must have already caused him that physical pain as well. “How long would you have waited?”

“As long as it took,” Will replies, and he loosens his hold on Nico. He presses a kiss to Nico’s forehead, then his nose, then his lips, and it doesn’t feel like an ending. It feels like a beginning.

**Author's Note:**

> thanks for reading!  
> check out @solangeloweek on tumblr for more nico birthday event stuff


End file.
